The local and global internet audience is rapidly maturing according to the research figures from IDC, Gartner and Red Sherrif. Globally, industrialised nations are now heading for internet ubiquity, less than a decade after the internet was introduced to the population at large. Since the turn of the millenium, the number of internet connections in the world has nearly doubled, and by 2009/10, the number of people on the internet will exceed one billion.